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Transmeta Update: Yes, they're still Alive.

What is it with me and off-topic content, anyways? I've been throwing more curveballs at you folks than Greg Maddux @ National League batters. Here's another: Those of you who've kicked around the site for awhile know that I hold a tiny place in my heart for Transmeta and their Crusoe processors. We haven't heard much from them in awhile, but Mikey is reporting on an event which surely made Transmeta execs smile...

Compaq, Acer, Toshiba and NEC will use Crusoe chips from struggling start up Transmeta in future Tablet PCs they're making.

Intel will not be very happy because many of its ultra low power Pentium III processors this year are designed to fit into Tablet PCs using the MS OS, and on which many hardware vendors are pinning their hypes, sorry hopes.

Go little guy! Stick it to the man! I wouldn't have even noticed this post had I not been pining for one of these of late. For those of you bothered by off-topic posts, please feel free to email our customer service line!

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XWRed1
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#13505 Posted on: 01/25/2002 03:08 AM
It'd be neat if the Crusoes could also do code morphing with PowerPC instructions, so you could maybe just reboot, change a bios option, then boot up Mac OSX. Don't know how realistically doable that is, but its a nice fantasy.

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widefault
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#13506 Posted on: 01/25/2002 03:46 AM
Yuck, Transmeta's chips are the most overhyped, underpowered product I've ever touched. A product so misleading they were sued by their own shareholders for misrepresenting performance data. When Tablet PC's fail(which they most likely will), people will blame MS, when it'll more likely be a result of the crappy design and hardware used. What'll be the point of paying big dollars for something that performs like a 3 year old laptop when you can probably get a bottom of the line NEW laptop at the same price?

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Aerosiecki
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#13508 Posted on: 01/25/2002 04:49 AM
Hmmm, I have always wanted one of those snazzy Fujitsu Stylistic tablets. The only silly things is the price. Four grand for a computer with the specs of a $500 budget model.

All in all, I want to see come competition in the tablet market, so that prices will get reasonable. I dig the idea of thin, keyboardless, and light.

I say, go transmeta! The more competition we have going on, the cheaper it all gets for moi.

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Originally posted by UKWolf Love the address of the customer service line!

What's even better is that it won't bounce. Gotta love aliases.

Only one person has emailed me using that link, thus far. :-)[url="http://www.2cpu.com"][size=1]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one![url="http://www.jimkirk.org"]jimkirk.org[/url] - Not a Myth any Longer. Just a Dad.[/size]

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widefault
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#13511 Posted on: 01/25/2002 05:24 AM

Originally posted by ReMeDy So your blaming Transmeta for Tablet PC's being underpowered or build construction?:confused:

Both are intertwined. They'll be designed for portability instead of usability, which means smaller batterys, which means the chip needs to use less power, which means it'll be running in the low power mode. And a Transmeta chip in low power mode is the performance equivalent of a Pentium 1. That the reason the shareholders went after Transmeta, they don't put that info out there. Would a PIII chip be any better? Probably not, but at least they're much better performers in low-power mode.

I also have to ask what MS is thinking? Who needs the Tablet PC? I look at it as an oversized, overcomplicated remote control costing more than a basic laptop. I'll buy the laptop.

&E

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ReMeDy
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#13512 Posted on: 01/25/2002 06:08 AM
Actually Intel also has a LV Mobile Celeron in tablet PC's also. But i suppose its not intels fault either for the down fall of tablet pc's either soon right?:confused:|[size=1][url=http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=279831#post279831][color=yellow]FAQ's[/url][/color][/size]|Heatware-Remedy{WcS}|Dual760|Beerology|

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widefault
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#13513 Posted on: 01/25/2002 06:33 AM
The difference is the Intel chips in low power mode won't be such poor performers, but they'll be more expensive. So which ones will more people buy? The transmeta based ones. Not what I'd want people to think of when someone says TabletPC.

&E

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Jim_
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#13514 Posted on: 01/25/2002 06:37 AM

Originally posted by widefault The difference is the Intel chips in low power mode won't be such poor performers, but they'll be more expensive.

This may be shocking to hear for some of you but I'll say it anyways: Horsepower isn't everything.

Hell I don't even -have- a desktop workstation anymore. I use my laptop all the time.

/me shrugs.[url="http://www.2cpu.com"][size=1]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one![url="http://www.jimkirk.org"]jimkirk.org[/url] - Not a Myth any Longer. Just a Dad.[/size]

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widefault
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#13515 Posted on: 01/25/2002 07:34 AM

Originally posted by Jim_

This may be shocking to hear for some of you but I'll say it anyways: Horsepower isn't everything.

Hell I don't even -have- a desktop workstation anymore. I use my laptop all the time.

/me shrugs.

Frankly Jim, your laptop has quite a bit of horsepower. With the i830 chipset and the new 512k cache PIII's it's a damned good desktop replacement. The Transmeta's are not, and even in the TabletPC I can see people being very disappointed. In low power mode they will most definitely be a disappointement for even basic use, the ones I've used are more pathetic than the Via/Cyrix chips. Remember this is a MICROSOFT plan, so I'm sure the amount of bloatware will be at a max and I really doubt the Transmeta will keep up.

&E

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Jim_
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#13516 Posted on: 01/25/2002 07:40 AM

Originally posted by widefault The Transmeta's are not, and even in the TabletPC I can see people being very disappointed. In low power mode they will most definitely be a disappointement for even basic use, the ones I've used are more pathetic than the Via/Cyrix chips. Remember this is a MICROSOFT plan

The problem I notice a lot when people complain about the performance of certain products is that they assume that everyone who will be buying said products has the -exact- same concept of performance that they in fact do.

While I'm sure a tablet ran by a crusoe would seem slow to you and I, that isn't necessarily the case for Joe Blow user down the street picking up one of these tablets.

Also in situations where portability, cost and size are paramount over performance (and often functionality), concessions are often made on the performance end. You can't have it all, unfortunately. At least not yet.

*edit* My laptop clearly wasn't a great example. It is pretty quick, albeit disk bound which I do notice all the time. */edit*[url="http://www.2cpu.com"][size=1]2CPU.com[/url] - Because two are always better than one![url="http://www.jimkirk.org"]jimkirk.org[/url] - Not a Myth any Longer. Just a Dad.[/size]

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Big B
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#13517 Posted on: 01/25/2002 12:19 PM
I'm surprised Transmeta is still in business. They have good idea's, but they've taken way too long to get them out, and I'm afraid it's far too late for them to be a believeable contender in any game...well maybe for a really fast PDA, but I'm jesting on this part. Transmeta is laughable, sadly. The code-morphing thing is cool, but that's just it: cool, and not really that great in the long run.
MSI Z97S SLI Plus.Pentium G3258 @ 4.3GHz. 8GB GSkill DDR3-2133. Seagate 320GB. WD 1TB+160GB+160GB. LG DVDRW. XFX Radeon 7850. XFX 650W PSU. CoolerMaster 212 EVO. Win 7

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duke
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#13518 Posted on: 01/25/2002 08:08 PM
If it was just *cool* then no one would be even thinking about taking them over. They brought a unigue idea to the market and even if they do fail, at least they brought power usage in laptops to a forefront and forced Intel and Amd to introduce new features.

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rogersr
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Joined: 2000-07-21

#13519 Posted on: 01/26/2002 06:36 AM
I've been following the TabletPC stuff from the inside for the better part of 2 years, this is not a surprise to me. Believe it or not, MS has been pushing the OEM's hard to look at Transmeta. They are finally realizing that hardware competition is good for them, not bad. Plus, it's simply better technology for Tablets, and MS has a lot riding on this software.

Rhino

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Big B
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#13520 Posted on: 01/26/2002 01:43 PM
So far I can only recall seeing a promotional for a laptop from sony with a Crusoe chip in it, and I'm not sure if sony is still using them. Hopefully, for Transmeta, we won't see a bunch of vendors drop them like what happened a while back with the laptops.
MSI Z97S SLI Plus.Pentium G3258 @ 4.3GHz. 8GB GSkill DDR3-2133. Seagate 320GB. WD 1TB+160GB+160GB. LG DVDRW. XFX Radeon 7850. XFX 650W PSU. CoolerMaster 212 EVO. Win 7

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ReMeDy
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#13521 Posted on: 01/26/2002 08:16 PM
Actually Transmeta has 4 or more Oem deals going right now worldwide. Sharp, Fujitsu, Sony,Nec,Hitachi, Casio, and Toshiba. That's enough to keep them in the game. Not to mention IA(internet appliance)Deals will have their head above water.

I can't wait to see the Crusoe DDR chipset books this summer. I think i will just wait for that instead of buying now.|[size=1][url=http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=279831#post279831][color=yellow]FAQ's[/url][/color][/size]|Heatware-Remedy{WcS}|Dual760|Beerology|

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Big B
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#13522 Posted on: 01/27/2002 06:15 AM
IA's...well the price better drop with those, since they didn't really do too well originally cuz of price.;)

I don't really see how DDR is gonna help the Crusoe that much, though, however, if I see a fairly cheap laptop with the Crusoe and DDR, that would be a consideration.
MSI Z97S SLI Plus.Pentium G3258 @ 4.3GHz. 8GB GSkill DDR3-2133. Seagate 320GB. WD 1TB+160GB+160GB. LG DVDRW. XFX Radeon 7850. XFX 650W PSU. CoolerMaster 212 EVO. Win 7

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ReMeDy
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#13523 Posted on: 01/27/2002 08:10 AM
Sony is going to be first out with the DDR Crusoe based book. VIA's DDR based books will be something to look at too.|[size=1][url=http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=279831#post279831][color=yellow]FAQ's[/url][/color][/size]|Heatware-Remedy{WcS}|Dual760|Beerology|

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expo1001
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#13525 Posted on: 01/28/2002 10:49 PM
Socket 370 Crusoes? That would be kinda neat. I wonder thought if Via is going to push their C3 processor into the tablet/sub-laptop market. It would make sense as it is low power and low heat. From benchmarks the preformance is about that of a celeron, but with less power and heat.
[size=1][color=blue]
Watch not his flashing blade;
Nothing can be seen there.
His fists will reveal where he intends
to cut.[/size][/color]

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ReMeDy
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#13526 Posted on: 01/29/2002 01:45 AM
The C3 is already in the Laptop market. Taiwan, but i found one over here to. Its a DIY type. C3 1Ghz laptop and it was starting at 700 dollars. I'll try and pick one up later.|[size=1][url=http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=279831#post279831][color=yellow]FAQ's[/url][/color][/size]|Heatware-Remedy{WcS}|Dual760|Beerology|